Syria-Palestine

Syria-Palestine, also called Greater Syria, al-Sham, or simply Syria, is a region of Western Asia that encompasses present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. It can be compared with the Levant, Near East, and the Middle East.

History
Syria-Palestine has been defined as the land east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert, and south of the Taurus Mountains, which would add the Hatay Province of Turkey to the lands of the region. Syria-Palestine has been an important historical region since the dawn of civilization, with the Canaanites, Israelites, Philistines, Arameans, Assyrian Empire, Kingdom of Moab, and Phoenicians, among others, ruling over the area. The region was battled over between the New Kingdom Egypt to the south and the Hittite Empire to the north during the Late Bronze Age, and it later fell under the rule of several Middle Eastern empires for much of its history. It includes the pivotal cities of Jerusalem and Damascus, the former of which is the holy city of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and the latter of which is the oldest continuously-inhabited city on Earth and a major center of commerce in the Middle East.

During the rule of Ba'athist Syria after 1963, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the ruling Ba'ath Party have promoted Syrian nationalism. From 1976 to 2005 the Syrian Arab Army occupied Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War between the pro-Israel Maronite Christians, the pro-Syrian Shi'ite Muslims, and the fiercely independent Sunni Muslims until the Cedar Revolution after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The SSNP continues to pursue a pan-Syrian ideology, and the idea of a Greater Syria is a central part of Ba'athist and SSNP ideology.